Democrats argue McConnell move exposes GOP divide on spending

Democrats are arguing that a move by Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday to block an up-or-down vote on House spending
cuts shows Senate Republicans are divided on the cuts.

McConnell objected Friday to two moves by Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The objections mean the Senate will vote on a
cloture motion on whether to proceed to a House bill cutting spending by another $57
billion, instead of an up-or-down vote on that measure that Reid wanted to set
up.

{mosads}Democrats believe an up-or-down vote would put the squeeze
on centrist Republicans uneasy with some of the cuts in the House bill. The
cloture vote scheduled for Tuesday gives Republicans the “wiggle” room to vote with their
party and say that they still opposed specific cuts, a Senate aide said.

“By objecting to an up-or-down vote on the House bill,
Senate Republicans are agreeing with us that the proposal is too extreme to
pass as is. Now that they have admitted they want changes to it just like we
do, the real negotiations on the budget can finally begin,” Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

“Senate Republicans have been clamoring for a vote on the
measure for weeks, only to back off an offer by Majority Leader Harry Reid to
have a final-passage vote on the measure next Tuesday,” Schumer’s office
stated.

McConnell’s office responded Friday that McConnell and Reid
are actually working together to move to votes next week on both measures.

“I feel bad for Sen. Schumer, he must not have been on the
floor at the time and missed the exchange between the Senate leaders where they
discussed working together over the weekend to set up votes on both the House
bill and the Dems’ status quo bill,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in
reply.

McConnell objected to Reid’s attempt to proceed to
consideration of a Democratic bill to reduce spending this year by $6.5
billion; and a motion to proceed to a vote on legislation already approved by
the House that would cut $57 billion in spending. (Congress has already approved
$4 billion in cuts for this year. The original legislation approved by the
House cut a total of $61 billion.)

The move forced Reid to file a cloture on the motion to
proceed to the House bill.

“We need to have a chance over the weekend to take a look at
what our friends have offered here and it could well be that by Monday, we will
conclude this proposal that the majority leader has laid out is the best way to
go forward,” McConnell said on the floor on Friday. “We’ll continue to talk
about that over the weekend.”